Tag: knitting design

Still Smitten

Nadia

Finally! I have the updated my most popular pattern available on Ravelry, Lovecrafts, and Yarn.com (WEBS). This sample uses two shades of Malabrigo Rios—Paris Night is the dark main color and Aquamarine is the light contrasting color. The pattern instructions are the same, but the layout design is new.

I have knit this design many times at this point, and I’ve enjoyed it each time. It’s a relaxing knit for colorwork fans and newbies alike with no long floats and an intuitive motif.

The color combinations you could use are nearly endless, and the yarn amounts needed are minimal, so it’s a great stashbuster too! I’ve knit two large headbands from two hanks of Malabrigo Rios, and still have some yarn left over! I love a great way to use up yarn left from bigger projects, especially hand-dyed lovelies like these.

The original sample combined a gorgeous hank of Three Irish Girls Glenhaven Cashmerino in Cair Paravel as the main color and Madelinetosh Tosh Vintage in Fawn for the contrasting color.

Time to Leap

Nadia

I’ve been stuck in the thinking about new designs phase for an embarrassingly long time, but I’ve decided that 2020 is the time to pull out my design notebook and get to the work of creating.

It’s hard to make the leap back into the arena. Sitting on the sidelines and just writing ideas down and assuring myself that I could definitely bring them to life if I decided to is way easier. It’s also way less fulfilling. And it’s how I can feel like I’ve just blinked and over three years have gone by since I’ve hit publish on a new pattern.

Lack of ideas has never been the problem, thankfully, but the lack of confidence and determination has been. There’s a point though, when action still overwhelming even though you have done all the preparation and learned the things you needed to, that you need to just jump; when the only thing holding you back is you. That’s been me for the past few years, and frankly, it doesn’t serve me anymore. It never really did, but I believed that I wasn’t ready or that I didn’t have every single skill mastered that I needed to do this work well, so I shouldn’t even try. The thing about that though, is that the best way to master skills is by DOING THEM! By practicing and trying and trying again if the first way (or the third way) doesn’t work the way you intended.

I don’t expect that everything will be easy—I have a full time job and 4 kids to balance with design work—but I do expect that it will be worth it. Here’s to the journey.

If you always do what is easy and choose the path of least resistance, you never step outside your comfort zone. Great things don’t come from comfort zones.”

― Roy T. Bennett